BY RICK JACKSON
The cold war thrillers of yesteryear come to mind with the release of Killer Elite starring Jason Statham, Robert DeNiro and Clive Owen. The old way of fighting the enemy and meting out justice in such 1965 films as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, The Quiller Memorandum, and The Ipcress File dealt with spies and double crosses and despite their simple plots they delivered what you came to expect on many Saturday matinees as an escape from reality. To see two actors duking it out or backing their compadres with bullets and cunning getaways only to fight another day are the rules of the game in director Gary McKendry's top notch action thriller about two teams of ex-SAS hit men who are out to kill each other. After you are introduced to Danny and Hunter in a prologue to what happens next, the bar is set to where the story is going to lead. It is not until the end credits you learn this is all based on a true story from author Ralph Fiennes' book, The Feather Men. Rather than copy from previous genre films about the Cold War, the action mostly takes place in places that are familiar to the moviegoer if you have been paying attention to world events or read a local daily newspaper.
You don't catch on about the details of the plot until near the end, and this ensures your undivided attention to see what and where is going on. The simplicity of the plot's deadly game of human chess holds within its grasp the professional spirit and tenacity of playing a real game of survival where the line between the good guys and bad guys is obscured and the allies on both sides leave you wanting to see some real action to break the unceasing monotony of who gets shot set in the early scenes. It doesn't matter if you don't who is who because you are slowly drawn in a web of increasing suspense for not being told everything at the start, like reading a novel where not all the characters are revealed in the first three chapters.
The screenplay by McKendry and Matt Sherring depends on action and there is lots of it.
After you learn why DeNiro's Hunter and Statham's Danny have been lured to visit an Arab sheik who wants revenge against the killers of his three sons, you are immediately set up to believe this is going to be interesting and it is from the start, thanks to DeNiro and Statham whose acting skills put more into the plot with their facial expressions, raison d'etre and their experiences as part of an elite group of individuals whose training you don't see but quickly figure out that they know their business and have done it well when you remember how careful they act without thinking too much for their individual expertise in the field is why they have been chosen for another tricky assignment. It may look predictable at the beginning but there are enough wild cards along the way to keep you thinking and watching.
Both DeNiro and Statham consistently keep you glued to the big screen for their distinguished acting abilities are what you made line up to see them and they don't disappoint. Their appearances are right on the money as they become involved in what turns out to be a much bigger stake in a diabolical web where the lines remain in the shadows.
With the addition of Spike who is leader of the Feather Men, the action becomes deadlier and more cold-blooded by the very nature of the subtle and mean engagements that define the real nature of the seriousness of their identities and loyalties which remain nicely blurred until you are able to figure them out because you have been watching all along so you can understand the precise directions of the plot.
Statham and DeNiro make a good team. They obviously know each other well enough to trust their instincts and know what to expect from each other and this only increases the pulse and ferocity of the action.
Owen excels in his role as a worthy opponent who wants to know about Hunter and Danny and why they are involved and this, too, maintains the superior level of storytelling amid the myriad of events going on in the international sections of the world that bring all three characters together.
Well paced under McKendry's neophite direction, there is a lot to root for and you are left on a movie high when the film reaches its inevitable conclusion.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: coarse language and graphic violence.
September 25, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
WHISTLEBLOWER (E-ONE, 2011)****
BY RICK JACKSON
The Whistleblower tells a story that is as real as the events happening on the big screen. You are immediately removed from the safety and comfort of your seat by the shocking reality of what you are witnessing as if it were ripped from today's headlines. It is this immediacy that Toronto-born writer/director Larysa Kondracki wants you to experience, something that will ultimately also be a subject at the water cooler because some sequences may be disturbing.
The main character, Kathryn Balkovac is based on a real person, a former police investigator from Lincoln, Nebraska, who became embroiled in a scandal involving child slavery and human trafficking while on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, Herzegovina with Democra Corp, a pseudonym for Dyn Corp.
Rachel Weisz imbues Balkovac with a sense of normalcy that almost defies description by the sheer manner she approaches the character as an ordinary person, only to be interrupted by circumstances beyond her control.
Reading the credits, you will learn that the real Balkovac served as a consultant and this gives the entire film a certain special resonance within the confines of fact depicted as fiction.
What makes it even more real than expected is the pervading atmosphere that slowly builds up as if this is a symphony of dialogue waiting for the climactic moment when the ultimate crescendo or climax will shock you with such a reality that it is almost too real to comprehend.
The real operatives who commit the crimes you see are part of the bigger picture where Balkovac's life is in jeopardy at every turn and the director doesn't lose any of the momentum thanks, in large part, to Weisz's controlled performance.
Kondracki pays urgent attention to her and the details of the story with the actress turning in her best role to date in such a painstaking intensity you haven't seen before. The story also compels you to keep watching and with each plot turn overtly familiar at the outset, there is an overriding sensibility at the heart of the decidely monstrous and threatrening episodes and Weisz demonstrates this in her implacable and honest portrayal.
The supporting cast benefits by David Strathairn's meaty supporting role as Peter Ward, who acts as Balkovac's only friend when she is dismissed after filing a lawsuit in England at Dyncorp for her disclosure or, more pointedly put, whistleblowing.
What is even equally shocking are the details that show the huge financial profits from the scandal and it makes you wonder if this is still going on in other companies overseas which have yet to by others like Balkovac who had the courage to do what she did.
Mychael Danna's superb music score cuts to the suspenseful moments with unerring display and it is a brief reminder of his score he did for Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter in 1997 which was also about an investigation.
Like another of Danna's scores for Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997) you get to feel for the characters in an atmosphere where the villains are omnipresent and ready to strike without notice or warning of any kind.
Thankfully, Kondracki doesn't let things loose too quickly and, in the process, she creates more intrigue and danger just like Egoyan and Lee. The use of sub-titles where necessary in The Whistleblower ritualistically exposes the dramatic elements of this true story.
Three supporting roles worth mentioning are Monica Bellucci as Laura Levin, a bureaucrat who refuses to repatriate the female victims in the scandal because they have no passports; David Hewlett as Fred Murray, Balkovac's superior officer, and veteran actrress Vanessa Redgrave as Madeleine Reiss, a friendly official from the Human Rights Commission who shares with Balkovac and us a welcome credibility as to the entire potential influence of the scandal.
The real Balkovac has written a book about her experience with author Cari Lynn. It is called
Whistleblower: Sex and Trafficking, Military Contractors and One Woman's Fight For Justice.
Here is one of the most explosive films to come along in recent years.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: coarse language and disturbing content.
September 23, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
The Whistleblower tells a story that is as real as the events happening on the big screen. You are immediately removed from the safety and comfort of your seat by the shocking reality of what you are witnessing as if it were ripped from today's headlines. It is this immediacy that Toronto-born writer/director Larysa Kondracki wants you to experience, something that will ultimately also be a subject at the water cooler because some sequences may be disturbing.
The main character, Kathryn Balkovac is based on a real person, a former police investigator from Lincoln, Nebraska, who became embroiled in a scandal involving child slavery and human trafficking while on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, Herzegovina with Democra Corp, a pseudonym for Dyn Corp.
Rachel Weisz imbues Balkovac with a sense of normalcy that almost defies description by the sheer manner she approaches the character as an ordinary person, only to be interrupted by circumstances beyond her control.
Reading the credits, you will learn that the real Balkovac served as a consultant and this gives the entire film a certain special resonance within the confines of fact depicted as fiction.
What makes it even more real than expected is the pervading atmosphere that slowly builds up as if this is a symphony of dialogue waiting for the climactic moment when the ultimate crescendo or climax will shock you with such a reality that it is almost too real to comprehend.
The real operatives who commit the crimes you see are part of the bigger picture where Balkovac's life is in jeopardy at every turn and the director doesn't lose any of the momentum thanks, in large part, to Weisz's controlled performance.
Kondracki pays urgent attention to her and the details of the story with the actress turning in her best role to date in such a painstaking intensity you haven't seen before. The story also compels you to keep watching and with each plot turn overtly familiar at the outset, there is an overriding sensibility at the heart of the decidely monstrous and threatrening episodes and Weisz demonstrates this in her implacable and honest portrayal.
The supporting cast benefits by David Strathairn's meaty supporting role as Peter Ward, who acts as Balkovac's only friend when she is dismissed after filing a lawsuit in England at Dyncorp for her disclosure or, more pointedly put, whistleblowing.
What is even equally shocking are the details that show the huge financial profits from the scandal and it makes you wonder if this is still going on in other companies overseas which have yet to by others like Balkovac who had the courage to do what she did.
Mychael Danna's superb music score cuts to the suspenseful moments with unerring display and it is a brief reminder of his score he did for Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter in 1997 which was also about an investigation.
Like another of Danna's scores for Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997) you get to feel for the characters in an atmosphere where the villains are omnipresent and ready to strike without notice or warning of any kind.
Thankfully, Kondracki doesn't let things loose too quickly and, in the process, she creates more intrigue and danger just like Egoyan and Lee. The use of sub-titles where necessary in The Whistleblower ritualistically exposes the dramatic elements of this true story.
Three supporting roles worth mentioning are Monica Bellucci as Laura Levin, a bureaucrat who refuses to repatriate the female victims in the scandal because they have no passports; David Hewlett as Fred Murray, Balkovac's superior officer, and veteran actrress Vanessa Redgrave as Madeleine Reiss, a friendly official from the Human Rights Commission who shares with Balkovac and us a welcome credibility as to the entire potential influence of the scandal.
The real Balkovac has written a book about her experience with author Cari Lynn. It is called
Whistleblower: Sex and Trafficking, Military Contractors and One Woman's Fight For Justice.
Here is one of the most explosive films to come along in recent years.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: coarse language and disturbing content.
September 23, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
MONEYBALL (COLUMBIA, 2011)****
BY RICK JACKSON
Based on a true story about Lamar "Billy" Beane , manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, who used sabermetric principles to put together a winning team despite financial constraints and has since influenced the major leagues in how its teams and players think about baseball.
In 1998 when he became general manager of the Oakland A's his predecessor, Sandy Alderson had already started using sabermetrics that ultimately led to undervalued players. Although Beane's methods are not discussed or mentioned in the film, it provides you with an colourful perspective that could change the baseball movie in general.
Moneyball takes a big risk by being a decent story and triumphs as a moving and persuasive true story. Brad Pitt effectively plays Beane with the requisite courage and ambition and he conveys through his gently mannered and instinctive behaviour what a real team player looks like behind the scenes.
Like previous baseball films like The Natural (1984), Eight Men Out (1988), Field of Dreams (1989)and The Rookie(2002) which captured the spirit of the game, Moneyball goes one step further by giving a story behind the story look with the same generosity of spirit and satisfaction.
Based on the book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, the screenplay by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin deftly focuses on Beane's abilities to take charge and Pitt plays him as if the actor was born to play the part. The office chats between Beane and Art Howe, the owner of the team (Philip Seymour Hoffman) inject the film with credibility and controbute with their conversations, a chance to see some "backroom politics" which you only hear about on sports shows on the small screen.
Jonah Hill brings to the role of Peter Brand, one of Beane's cohorts, a challenge to win by sheer attitude and knowledge of the game and instils even further Pitt's portrayal with greater depth than one might think. These characters maintain respect and integrity for baseball and this adds to the movie's overall impact. There is even a touch of comedy to lighten the few serious moments and it increases your enjoyment of watching a great baseball movie.
Pitt also brings the family man into his characterization to show even closer his humanity closer to home. Watch for his scenes with his ex-wife(Robin Wright) and daughter (Kerris Dorsey).
Mychael Danna's music score maintains the emotional impact of the sport and it is kept nicely in the background so you can appreciate more the baseball plays and the TV coverage.
Bennett Miller (Capote) skillfully directs each scene . Its slow pace at the beginning sets the tone of what ends up to be one of the best films of the year for its sheer ability and weight to underscore the back story of one of the American League's most exciting teams.
It is rated PG, with the warning: language may offend.
September 24, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Based on a true story about Lamar "Billy" Beane , manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, who used sabermetric principles to put together a winning team despite financial constraints and has since influenced the major leagues in how its teams and players think about baseball.
In 1998 when he became general manager of the Oakland A's his predecessor, Sandy Alderson had already started using sabermetrics that ultimately led to undervalued players. Although Beane's methods are not discussed or mentioned in the film, it provides you with an colourful perspective that could change the baseball movie in general.
Moneyball takes a big risk by being a decent story and triumphs as a moving and persuasive true story. Brad Pitt effectively plays Beane with the requisite courage and ambition and he conveys through his gently mannered and instinctive behaviour what a real team player looks like behind the scenes.
Like previous baseball films like The Natural (1984), Eight Men Out (1988), Field of Dreams (1989)and The Rookie(2002) which captured the spirit of the game, Moneyball goes one step further by giving a story behind the story look with the same generosity of spirit and satisfaction.
Based on the book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, the screenplay by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin deftly focuses on Beane's abilities to take charge and Pitt plays him as if the actor was born to play the part. The office chats between Beane and Art Howe, the owner of the team (Philip Seymour Hoffman) inject the film with credibility and controbute with their conversations, a chance to see some "backroom politics" which you only hear about on sports shows on the small screen.
Jonah Hill brings to the role of Peter Brand, one of Beane's cohorts, a challenge to win by sheer attitude and knowledge of the game and instils even further Pitt's portrayal with greater depth than one might think. These characters maintain respect and integrity for baseball and this adds to the movie's overall impact. There is even a touch of comedy to lighten the few serious moments and it increases your enjoyment of watching a great baseball movie.
Pitt also brings the family man into his characterization to show even closer his humanity closer to home. Watch for his scenes with his ex-wife(Robin Wright) and daughter (Kerris Dorsey).
Mychael Danna's music score maintains the emotional impact of the sport and it is kept nicely in the background so you can appreciate more the baseball plays and the TV coverage.
Bennett Miller (Capote) skillfully directs each scene . Its slow pace at the beginning sets the tone of what ends up to be one of the best films of the year for its sheer ability and weight to underscore the back story of one of the American League's most exciting teams.
It is rated PG, with the warning: language may offend.
September 24, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE (WARNER BROS, 2011)*
BY RICK JACKSON
One good thing about this comedy romance is the absence of crude behaviour. Albeit, for the kind of film this is there is little of either to cheer about and you wonder if Hollywood is not able to make a decent comedy for a change. It is something to think about as you chomp away on your popcorn and drink your coke while Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, and Emma Stone try to entertain you with the dialogue courtesy of screenwriter Dan Fogelman.
Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa can't decide whether some of it or all of it should be funny because you end up having a box of crackerjacks without the prize.
The cynical thoughts of love and romance transferred from the page to the actors' mouths seem endlessly boring to listen to and their facial expressions are trapped in a time warp for there isn't anything worth laughing at by the time the end credits roll.
I have purposely avoided telling you anything of the plot because the film's title says it all. It's an abomination from beginning to end and despite it's good box office showing and popularity among the college and high school aged moviegoers, there is, admittedly, one scene that is bringing girls to see the film: Ryan Gosling's near total nude scene where Gosling and Carell try to make a joke about something that is almost funny but misfires because their comic timings are way off and Fogelman is trying too hard to make a statement about how crazy and stupid love actually is from his point of view.
I think Hollywood should bring back the comedies of the 1980s starring Tom Hanks for they were, at least, worth seeing even if they weren't classics. They were entertaining and fun and, yes, they were stupid and crazy, too.
I almost forgot to mention Kevin Bacon's supporting role as Lindhagen. The pronunciation of his name is a lame joke and I don't recall anyone laughing either.
To tell you the truth, I didn't hear much laughter but I was at a matinee when it was quiet. Hey, if you want to see it, go ahead. It just might make your day and impress your significant other, too.
It is rated PG, with the warnings: mature theme and language may offend.
September 18, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
One good thing about this comedy romance is the absence of crude behaviour. Albeit, for the kind of film this is there is little of either to cheer about and you wonder if Hollywood is not able to make a decent comedy for a change. It is something to think about as you chomp away on your popcorn and drink your coke while Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, and Emma Stone try to entertain you with the dialogue courtesy of screenwriter Dan Fogelman.
Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa can't decide whether some of it or all of it should be funny because you end up having a box of crackerjacks without the prize.
The cynical thoughts of love and romance transferred from the page to the actors' mouths seem endlessly boring to listen to and their facial expressions are trapped in a time warp for there isn't anything worth laughing at by the time the end credits roll.
I have purposely avoided telling you anything of the plot because the film's title says it all. It's an abomination from beginning to end and despite it's good box office showing and popularity among the college and high school aged moviegoers, there is, admittedly, one scene that is bringing girls to see the film: Ryan Gosling's near total nude scene where Gosling and Carell try to make a joke about something that is almost funny but misfires because their comic timings are way off and Fogelman is trying too hard to make a statement about how crazy and stupid love actually is from his point of view.
I think Hollywood should bring back the comedies of the 1980s starring Tom Hanks for they were, at least, worth seeing even if they weren't classics. They were entertaining and fun and, yes, they were stupid and crazy, too.
I almost forgot to mention Kevin Bacon's supporting role as Lindhagen. The pronunciation of his name is a lame joke and I don't recall anyone laughing either.
To tell you the truth, I didn't hear much laughter but I was at a matinee when it was quiet. Hey, if you want to see it, go ahead. It just might make your day and impress your significant other, too.
It is rated PG, with the warnings: mature theme and language may offend.
September 18, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
THE HELP (TOUCHSTONE, 2011)****
BY RICK JACKSON
Based on the novel by American author Kathryn Stockett, The Help is a compelling story written and directed by her friend, Kate Taylor. Unlike the novel which was told from the perspective of three women: Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter, the film positions them in such a way that the moviegoer can experience first-hand the small history of how negro maids influenced a generation by working in white houses in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s, specifically the time leading up to Martin Luther King's march in Washington and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, two events that moved Americans to react in a positive way. "The help" as, the maids are commonly referred, eventually become involved in situations that make them more a force from their inroads to power and influence which is symbolically conveyed in the character of Minny, well played by Octavia Spencer. She is the heart and soul and, to a certain extent, the fearless example of the black African American. How she feels about her life story is the focus of the film and as it spins its historical roots from the bounds of fiction among the fictional characters of Skeeter, a white college graduate, played inexorably by the wonderful Emma Stone, and two others: Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Spencer's Minny.
As you watch the little girls who grow up with the help, they become more like their mothers than themselves because the story is confined to Minny's voice, a singular exponent of the power of the black vote which today in recent American elections, continues to provoke political thought and credence.
Avoiding the political manifestations, this is really Minny's story. I was reminded of Butterfly McQueen's portrayal of Prissy in the Oscar-winning Gone With The Wind (1939), a film which, according to Roland Flamini, author of Scarlett, Rhett, and A Cast of Thousands missed the opportunity to achieve racial understanding between whites and blacks. Instead, Prissy (Scarlett's Mammy) represented the black race in the 1930s.
In The Help when Minny is fired by Philly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), a local society lady, she is hired by Celia Foote, a white woman with influence. Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) plays her like the ruthless businesswoman of today and overcomes the stains of prejudice by her stalwart attitude and temperament. She doesn't always listen to Minny who, in a series of comic episodes, exerts her small authoritarian ways by offering advice and, in the process, doing tasks the help didn't do.
It's interesting how Stone gently insinuates herself by approaching the life of Minny in a book she is writing, something Taylor adds to the overall story as if the entire movie is a history lesson told from an unexpected source, the maid who, through Spencer's commanding presence on and off screen acts as the central force behind the advocacy of freedom for her race. It is undeniably powerful. In a second reminder while watching The Help, her part is similar to Whoopi Goldberg's strong part in 1992's The Long Walk Home which focused on the Montgomery Bus boycott.
Sitting in the front of the theatre, I couldn't help but overhear whispers of Sissy Spacek's appearance as Mrs. Walters. She gives just cause in her atitude and her small but pivotal part carries equal weight among the cast.
I, too, was amazed how Mary Steenburgen (Elaine Stein), who looks older on screen, still can play her roles so memorably like she did in Melvin And Howard (1980) and Cross Creek (1983) and so many other films.
Moviegoers failed to notice Allison Janney as Emma's mother and she, too, deserves special mention for she adds some welcome spice to the entire proceedings and draws your empathy toward Minny much more than you'd think.
One could almost unfailingly applaud The Help for its audacity and prevailing winds of calm which are interrupted by historical events that shaped a nation into growing further into understanding the black race as a decent one and where, today, in spite of the stories and politics of President Barrack Obama this story might not have been written and, subsequently, made into a movie.
Baby boomers will appreciate the soundtrack because it, too, figures prominently in the film.
There is Ray Charles (Hallelujah I Love Her So), Lloyd Price (Personality), the Orlons (Wah-Watusi), Bob Dylan (Don't Think Twice, It's Alright) and Chubby Checker (Let's Twist Again).
The ending to The Help speaks volumes for it is emblematic of the struggle of the black race. What you are also left with is the profound manner in which the voices from Stockett's book have resounded with such importance and wit by the ensemble cast in Taylor's film.
It is rated PG, with the warnings: mature theme and language may offend.
September 16, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Based on the novel by American author Kathryn Stockett, The Help is a compelling story written and directed by her friend, Kate Taylor. Unlike the novel which was told from the perspective of three women: Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter, the film positions them in such a way that the moviegoer can experience first-hand the small history of how negro maids influenced a generation by working in white houses in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s, specifically the time leading up to Martin Luther King's march in Washington and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, two events that moved Americans to react in a positive way. "The help" as, the maids are commonly referred, eventually become involved in situations that make them more a force from their inroads to power and influence which is symbolically conveyed in the character of Minny, well played by Octavia Spencer. She is the heart and soul and, to a certain extent, the fearless example of the black African American. How she feels about her life story is the focus of the film and as it spins its historical roots from the bounds of fiction among the fictional characters of Skeeter, a white college graduate, played inexorably by the wonderful Emma Stone, and two others: Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Spencer's Minny.
As you watch the little girls who grow up with the help, they become more like their mothers than themselves because the story is confined to Minny's voice, a singular exponent of the power of the black vote which today in recent American elections, continues to provoke political thought and credence.
Avoiding the political manifestations, this is really Minny's story. I was reminded of Butterfly McQueen's portrayal of Prissy in the Oscar-winning Gone With The Wind (1939), a film which, according to Roland Flamini, author of Scarlett, Rhett, and A Cast of Thousands missed the opportunity to achieve racial understanding between whites and blacks. Instead, Prissy (Scarlett's Mammy) represented the black race in the 1930s.
In The Help when Minny is fired by Philly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), a local society lady, she is hired by Celia Foote, a white woman with influence. Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) plays her like the ruthless businesswoman of today and overcomes the stains of prejudice by her stalwart attitude and temperament. She doesn't always listen to Minny who, in a series of comic episodes, exerts her small authoritarian ways by offering advice and, in the process, doing tasks the help didn't do.
It's interesting how Stone gently insinuates herself by approaching the life of Minny in a book she is writing, something Taylor adds to the overall story as if the entire movie is a history lesson told from an unexpected source, the maid who, through Spencer's commanding presence on and off screen acts as the central force behind the advocacy of freedom for her race. It is undeniably powerful. In a second reminder while watching The Help, her part is similar to Whoopi Goldberg's strong part in 1992's The Long Walk Home which focused on the Montgomery Bus boycott.
Sitting in the front of the theatre, I couldn't help but overhear whispers of Sissy Spacek's appearance as Mrs. Walters. She gives just cause in her atitude and her small but pivotal part carries equal weight among the cast.
I, too, was amazed how Mary Steenburgen (Elaine Stein), who looks older on screen, still can play her roles so memorably like she did in Melvin And Howard (1980) and Cross Creek (1983) and so many other films.
Moviegoers failed to notice Allison Janney as Emma's mother and she, too, deserves special mention for she adds some welcome spice to the entire proceedings and draws your empathy toward Minny much more than you'd think.
One could almost unfailingly applaud The Help for its audacity and prevailing winds of calm which are interrupted by historical events that shaped a nation into growing further into understanding the black race as a decent one and where, today, in spite of the stories and politics of President Barrack Obama this story might not have been written and, subsequently, made into a movie.
Baby boomers will appreciate the soundtrack because it, too, figures prominently in the film.
There is Ray Charles (Hallelujah I Love Her So), Lloyd Price (Personality), the Orlons (Wah-Watusi), Bob Dylan (Don't Think Twice, It's Alright) and Chubby Checker (Let's Twist Again).
The ending to The Help speaks volumes for it is emblematic of the struggle of the black race. What you are also left with is the profound manner in which the voices from Stockett's book have resounded with such importance and wit by the ensemble cast in Taylor's film.
It is rated PG, with the warnings: mature theme and language may offend.
September 16, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
DRIVE (ALLIANCE, 2011)****
BY RICK JACKSON
Drive is a slick, well acted piece of film noir starring Ryan Gosling in the title role. His laid back portrayal is emblematic of most of his roles but this time he rises to the occasion in a role made for him. He presents himself as a naive individual who can be pushed around and it is from this vantage point you get to see the world the driver is in from an uneasy and natural place for this is his world normally. When he is offered to buy a Chevy Impala from his agent Shannon (Bryan Cranston), you get to see him open up qhen he breaks loose from his quiet shell and proves he can let loose behind the wheel.
Before that happens, you learn the driver's credo: he will wait five minutes for you to do your firty work and what takes place after the time has elapsed will be your responsibility. It is an interesting way in approaching a man without a history and you never really get to know him as a hero or surrogate bad guy. He is a man of mystery and this is what draws you deeper into the world of make believe where the normal isn't perceived the way you think normal should be and the characters are all an embodiment of evil in a sophisticated manner you haven't seen since 1992 with the films, One False Move and Reservoir Dogs.
Written by Hossein Amini, based on the novel by Thomas Sallis, Drive lives up to its stylish imaginings by bringing together the appropriate meanness and desperate intentions of the main character while allowing the supporting cast to fill out the story. Here is a film where the expected becomes the unexpected because you don't know where it is going to lead. The seemingly endless nature to the driver's motives are simple and direct and Ryan Gosling perfectly assimilates the kind of person who would be naive enough to leave himself open but not without realizing as the courageous type who never yields for anyone in particular unless he has to. As you watch the actor work the part he is demonstrably perfect as a hero archetype who isn't afraid to react as a way to survive the so-called mean streets of the area and the environs that leave him waiting for the inevitable because you are expecting the same.
Amini's cleverly written adaptation lets you follow this series of occurrences as a way of digging into the impenetrable darkness of the human psyche when it is pushed long and hard enough and Gosling delivers in a way that one can hope will lead to an Academy Award nomination.
Editor Mat Newman captures both the mythic characters and the real ones by maintaining the spirit of film noirs of yesteryear, notably Dana Andrews in Laura (1944) and Glenn Ford in The Big Heat (1953). Gosling conveys the same cool exterior and like Andrews and Ford he shows just how much it will take for him to prove his courage and manliness by standing up to the bad guys.
Carey Mulligan plays the driver's next door neighbour with feline tenderness. Her vulnerability leaves open the gangster's chance to use her to get answers from the driver and it is to director Nicolas Winding Refn that this card isn't played.
However, Albert Brooks plays the slimy Bernie, the requisite gangster, with flourishes of nervy optimism and gut emotions like Danny De Vito did in Get Shorty (1995). It is all in keeping with the overall dramatic impact put to the test in the shadows of the cast as they inhabit a different world where the criminals are allowed to be freer than usual and the rest of us are left to survive the days of sin and violence with the least shred of hope.
Just as you watched Will Patton and Billy Bob Thornton in One False Move and Harvey Keitel in Reservoir Dogs, Brooks' Bernie lives to see another day for he is the voice of experience amid the amateurs who surround him. Gosling's title role is the epitome of the amateur who learns fast the way to live in the streets where vermin and death co-exist against all that life holds dear.
Watch how Brooks thinks he knows how to handle the driver until the director wants us to react in a certain way by letting Gosling do something he hasn't done before on screen. This evocation of justice is never too late in the world of film noir and it comes in an unexpected moment. The stylish way he is staged as if it were in flashback suggests that the driver is telling us the whole experience as if it were a bad dream which, of course, it isn't.
Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel captures the acts of violence in the ritualistic fashion you are used to seeing and it still repulses at the same time it entertains with each bullet and knife cutting. It is not gratuitous but it can be shocking for the innocent moviegoer who has not seen a lot of modern gangster films.
Gosling may be the main reason a lot of people will see Drive and you will not be disappointed. Here is a chance to see the Canadian-born star play a different and challenging role with the same professional edge and charisma he has used in his previous films.
It is rated 18A, with the warnings: gory scenes, coarse language and graphic violence.
September 17, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Drive is a slick, well acted piece of film noir starring Ryan Gosling in the title role. His laid back portrayal is emblematic of most of his roles but this time he rises to the occasion in a role made for him. He presents himself as a naive individual who can be pushed around and it is from this vantage point you get to see the world the driver is in from an uneasy and natural place for this is his world normally. When he is offered to buy a Chevy Impala from his agent Shannon (Bryan Cranston), you get to see him open up qhen he breaks loose from his quiet shell and proves he can let loose behind the wheel.
Before that happens, you learn the driver's credo: he will wait five minutes for you to do your firty work and what takes place after the time has elapsed will be your responsibility. It is an interesting way in approaching a man without a history and you never really get to know him as a hero or surrogate bad guy. He is a man of mystery and this is what draws you deeper into the world of make believe where the normal isn't perceived the way you think normal should be and the characters are all an embodiment of evil in a sophisticated manner you haven't seen since 1992 with the films, One False Move and Reservoir Dogs.
Written by Hossein Amini, based on the novel by Thomas Sallis, Drive lives up to its stylish imaginings by bringing together the appropriate meanness and desperate intentions of the main character while allowing the supporting cast to fill out the story. Here is a film where the expected becomes the unexpected because you don't know where it is going to lead. The seemingly endless nature to the driver's motives are simple and direct and Ryan Gosling perfectly assimilates the kind of person who would be naive enough to leave himself open but not without realizing as the courageous type who never yields for anyone in particular unless he has to. As you watch the actor work the part he is demonstrably perfect as a hero archetype who isn't afraid to react as a way to survive the so-called mean streets of the area and the environs that leave him waiting for the inevitable because you are expecting the same.
Amini's cleverly written adaptation lets you follow this series of occurrences as a way of digging into the impenetrable darkness of the human psyche when it is pushed long and hard enough and Gosling delivers in a way that one can hope will lead to an Academy Award nomination.
Editor Mat Newman captures both the mythic characters and the real ones by maintaining the spirit of film noirs of yesteryear, notably Dana Andrews in Laura (1944) and Glenn Ford in The Big Heat (1953). Gosling conveys the same cool exterior and like Andrews and Ford he shows just how much it will take for him to prove his courage and manliness by standing up to the bad guys.
Carey Mulligan plays the driver's next door neighbour with feline tenderness. Her vulnerability leaves open the gangster's chance to use her to get answers from the driver and it is to director Nicolas Winding Refn that this card isn't played.
However, Albert Brooks plays the slimy Bernie, the requisite gangster, with flourishes of nervy optimism and gut emotions like Danny De Vito did in Get Shorty (1995). It is all in keeping with the overall dramatic impact put to the test in the shadows of the cast as they inhabit a different world where the criminals are allowed to be freer than usual and the rest of us are left to survive the days of sin and violence with the least shred of hope.
Just as you watched Will Patton and Billy Bob Thornton in One False Move and Harvey Keitel in Reservoir Dogs, Brooks' Bernie lives to see another day for he is the voice of experience amid the amateurs who surround him. Gosling's title role is the epitome of the amateur who learns fast the way to live in the streets where vermin and death co-exist against all that life holds dear.
Watch how Brooks thinks he knows how to handle the driver until the director wants us to react in a certain way by letting Gosling do something he hasn't done before on screen. This evocation of justice is never too late in the world of film noir and it comes in an unexpected moment. The stylish way he is staged as if it were in flashback suggests that the driver is telling us the whole experience as if it were a bad dream which, of course, it isn't.
Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel captures the acts of violence in the ritualistic fashion you are used to seeing and it still repulses at the same time it entertains with each bullet and knife cutting. It is not gratuitous but it can be shocking for the innocent moviegoer who has not seen a lot of modern gangster films.
Gosling may be the main reason a lot of people will see Drive and you will not be disappointed. Here is a chance to see the Canadian-born star play a different and challenging role with the same professional edge and charisma he has used in his previous films.
It is rated 18A, with the warnings: gory scenes, coarse language and graphic violence.
September 17, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
WARRIOR (ALLIANCE, 2011)***
BY RICK JACKSON
Co-written and directed by Gavin O'Connor, Warrior tells the story of two brothers named Brendan and Tommy (Joel Edgarton and Tom Hardy) who take different paths until they converge in the boxing arena because it is at this juncture they realize winning is important if either one of them is to continue to live the American Dream like their father who trained both of them to wrestlers or boxers while growing up.
When you first see Brendan he is a high school teacher married with children, while Tommy is
a marine serving in the Middle East.
What happens in between is nicely brought together by Nick Nolte's strong supporting role as Paddy. He instils both of his sons with the right aim and like any father he wants both of them to succeed. He watches them when he can: Tommy on TV when he earns favour overseas and beside the ring closer to home where he does his best to help Brendan who is a lotmore like his father.
O'Connor, Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorfman intercut the lives of both sons to give you an idea of how they are doing and along the way you become absorbed by their progress without knowing how Brendan and Tommy will cross paths again until the common thread of boxing makes it clearer. Like several critics have stated, you want both of them to win in this heartfelt boxing tale that rises above the mundancity of most in the genre to inspire you to cheer secretly in your seat. Unlike the Rocky films where moviegoers cheered, Warrior isn't moving them to do it but that doesn't mean Warrior is inferior. It is a different fight picture because O'Connor didn't want to make a carbon copy of previous fight films, notably The Fighter last Christmas. True, Warrior has its moments but it is the director's inexperience in carefully pulling the destiny of the two brothers together where the film is at his weakest. Granted there is a lot to tell during the film's two hours plus running time, you are entertained by characters who are unrivalled in spirit and this redeems everything.
Nolte is also another major reason the film works better than it should. His character suffers from the demons of alcoholism and he returns to drinking after being sober for 1,000 days. His determination to stay sober and not let his sons down gives the film its heart and soul and like him you wish both brothers will win the big fight that goes the rounds like any other fight picture but this one emerges triumphant on another level. The answer is on the father's face as the film fades to black and the end credits roll.
Warrior is bound to have its detractors and supporters but it is a worthy film to see for the acting alone.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: graphic violence and disturbing content.
September 11, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Co-written and directed by Gavin O'Connor, Warrior tells the story of two brothers named Brendan and Tommy (Joel Edgarton and Tom Hardy) who take different paths until they converge in the boxing arena because it is at this juncture they realize winning is important if either one of them is to continue to live the American Dream like their father who trained both of them to wrestlers or boxers while growing up.
When you first see Brendan he is a high school teacher married with children, while Tommy is
a marine serving in the Middle East.
What happens in between is nicely brought together by Nick Nolte's strong supporting role as Paddy. He instils both of his sons with the right aim and like any father he wants both of them to succeed. He watches them when he can: Tommy on TV when he earns favour overseas and beside the ring closer to home where he does his best to help Brendan who is a lotmore like his father.
O'Connor, Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorfman intercut the lives of both sons to give you an idea of how they are doing and along the way you become absorbed by their progress without knowing how Brendan and Tommy will cross paths again until the common thread of boxing makes it clearer. Like several critics have stated, you want both of them to win in this heartfelt boxing tale that rises above the mundancity of most in the genre to inspire you to cheer secretly in your seat. Unlike the Rocky films where moviegoers cheered, Warrior isn't moving them to do it but that doesn't mean Warrior is inferior. It is a different fight picture because O'Connor didn't want to make a carbon copy of previous fight films, notably The Fighter last Christmas. True, Warrior has its moments but it is the director's inexperience in carefully pulling the destiny of the two brothers together where the film is at his weakest. Granted there is a lot to tell during the film's two hours plus running time, you are entertained by characters who are unrivalled in spirit and this redeems everything.
Nolte is also another major reason the film works better than it should. His character suffers from the demons of alcoholism and he returns to drinking after being sober for 1,000 days. His determination to stay sober and not let his sons down gives the film its heart and soul and like him you wish both brothers will win the big fight that goes the rounds like any other fight picture but this one emerges triumphant on another level. The answer is on the father's face as the film fades to black and the end credits roll.
Warrior is bound to have its detractors and supporters but it is a worthy film to see for the acting alone.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: graphic violence and disturbing content.
September 11, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
CONTAGION (WARNER BROTHERS, 2011)**
BY RICK JACKSON
From director Steven Soderbergh comes an ineffective drama about the potential disaster of an airborne virus that would signal the end of man's existence. The paranoia of such knowledge gets short shrift by a ridiculous premise lost in the director's intent to make an important film for our time.
Written by Scott Z.Burns, you are not made to feel threatened so much as you are by the fictional constraints of the characters involved and the lack of real authority in presenting an erudite and scary film about the thought of a virus as simple as the one found by a simple touch and the germs on what has been touched.
Matt Damon, a familiar face in Soderbergh's films, does his best to play Mitch, a father whose wife and son die from an inexplicable virus. His range of emotions is thinly portrayed and this hurts the credibility of the story.
The presence of such big stars as Gwyneth Palthrow, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Jude Law only makes the director's imperative to make a movie with a big box office draw. Had Soderbergh learned something from such classics as Arrowsmith (1931), Jezebel (1938), and Panic In The Streets (1950) there might have been a more realistic and topical film about a simple virus that would really be frightening as you watched it instead of in retrospect.
One does have to give credit to the director for not creating a sensational film about a global epidemic and there are, admittedly, some frightening scenes but they do not all add up to much.
Soderbergh's visual style works to a certain degree when he starts numbering the days of the epidemic. He starts with Day 2 which leaves open the chance for a slam bang climax when he goes back to Day 1. Unfortunately, it does not do this and you are left wondering why a film with such merit could fall so precipitously down from the point of being such a boldly, frightening film at the beginning to a long and boring TV movie of the week.
It is rated PG, with the warning: mature theme.
September 11, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
From director Steven Soderbergh comes an ineffective drama about the potential disaster of an airborne virus that would signal the end of man's existence. The paranoia of such knowledge gets short shrift by a ridiculous premise lost in the director's intent to make an important film for our time.
Written by Scott Z.Burns, you are not made to feel threatened so much as you are by the fictional constraints of the characters involved and the lack of real authority in presenting an erudite and scary film about the thought of a virus as simple as the one found by a simple touch and the germs on what has been touched.
Matt Damon, a familiar face in Soderbergh's films, does his best to play Mitch, a father whose wife and son die from an inexplicable virus. His range of emotions is thinly portrayed and this hurts the credibility of the story.
The presence of such big stars as Gwyneth Palthrow, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Jude Law only makes the director's imperative to make a movie with a big box office draw. Had Soderbergh learned something from such classics as Arrowsmith (1931), Jezebel (1938), and Panic In The Streets (1950) there might have been a more realistic and topical film about a simple virus that would really be frightening as you watched it instead of in retrospect.
One does have to give credit to the director for not creating a sensational film about a global epidemic and there are, admittedly, some frightening scenes but they do not all add up to much.
Soderbergh's visual style works to a certain degree when he starts numbering the days of the epidemic. He starts with Day 2 which leaves open the chance for a slam bang climax when he goes back to Day 1. Unfortunately, it does not do this and you are left wondering why a film with such merit could fall so precipitously down from the point of being such a boldly, frightening film at the beginning to a long and boring TV movie of the week.
It is rated PG, with the warning: mature theme.
September 11, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS(KINOSMITH,2011)****
BY RICK JACKSON
Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a compelling documentary about the Chauvet Cave in southern France. Written, produced, directed and narrated by Werner Herzog (Encounters At The End Of The World), you are invited to see the paintings that have been on its walls for more than 20,000 years. As Herzog tells you the history of the cave, you feel like you are stepping into history with the three people who have been allowed by the French government: the cinematographer(Peter Zeitlinger, a sound recorder, his assistant, and Herzog who works the lights and interviews the special guests who help explain the importance of the cave and how humans way back then lived. It is all a fascinating trip during each of the film's 90 mnutes and I'm positive you will be equally impressed.
What is exciting is the discovery of a child who visited the cave and left a footprint. You are told after he left that a rock slide sealed the cave's entrance.
In 1994 a team of French archeologists discovered the cave and to show better the actual contours of the ancient walls, Herzog used 3D cameras. In 2D only at The Screening Room you are not robbed of any of their brilliance and you are immediatelyimpressed by the examples left from the Paleolithic Era by the light from flickering torches.
Access to the cave by the director and his team was limited as he explains and there is a sense of imminent danger as part of the visual landscape and the penetrating levels of storytelling that rise to the occasion.
See early sculptures that show human forms, one of which is a woman shown from the waist down. Other paintings depict the animal life of the time: mammoths, cave bears, lions, bison, panthers, horses and rhinos. The cameras show them in a pseudo silhouette patterns as if they are about to come to life at any moment. When Herzog shows Fred Astaire dancing in silhouette it adds to the intrigue amid the fictional Hollywood side trip.
I was enlightened by the discovery of music and early artifacts. The knowledge of finding out that there was also religion many millennia ago as you watch a member of the production play the Star Spangled Banner on a flute.
In an interview with Herzog in the May/June 2011 issue of Film Comment, the point is raised about the connection beteen the past and present because the cave allows you to think of man's human soul that obviously developed to where it is today in the technological world of computers, cellphones, and the internet. How man worked the land and killed to survive gives you an idea of how humans existed and it brings into clearer focus the overall feeling of the film as not a movie but a journey inside a cave.
Herzog's passion for filmmaking is evident in his features (Aguirre The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo for example) and his other documentaries. It translates on the big screen as a testament to the myth of storytelling presented by the rock art literally for it all speaks volumes to the team of experts who are work with Herzog and their enthusiasm and excitement also become ours.
Ernest Reijseger's music is appropriately kept in the background without any jarring crescendos so you can appreciate the dignity of the period that much more. It also helps to keep you absorbed with every turn inside the cave by cameras that almost seem to be moving on their own to eagerly show everything they can.
Herzog mentions the constrictions he had while shooting and his respect toward it enhances the intriguing sensibilities the cave represents.
By the time end credits roll, the cave is no longer forgotten but a memory brought to life as timeless as the paintings of long ago. You are suitably and respectably mesmerized and entertained at the same time.
It is rated G for General which means everyone can see it.
September 9, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a compelling documentary about the Chauvet Cave in southern France. Written, produced, directed and narrated by Werner Herzog (Encounters At The End Of The World), you are invited to see the paintings that have been on its walls for more than 20,000 years. As Herzog tells you the history of the cave, you feel like you are stepping into history with the three people who have been allowed by the French government: the cinematographer(Peter Zeitlinger, a sound recorder, his assistant, and Herzog who works the lights and interviews the special guests who help explain the importance of the cave and how humans way back then lived. It is all a fascinating trip during each of the film's 90 mnutes and I'm positive you will be equally impressed.
What is exciting is the discovery of a child who visited the cave and left a footprint. You are told after he left that a rock slide sealed the cave's entrance.
In 1994 a team of French archeologists discovered the cave and to show better the actual contours of the ancient walls, Herzog used 3D cameras. In 2D only at The Screening Room you are not robbed of any of their brilliance and you are immediatelyimpressed by the examples left from the Paleolithic Era by the light from flickering torches.
Access to the cave by the director and his team was limited as he explains and there is a sense of imminent danger as part of the visual landscape and the penetrating levels of storytelling that rise to the occasion.
See early sculptures that show human forms, one of which is a woman shown from the waist down. Other paintings depict the animal life of the time: mammoths, cave bears, lions, bison, panthers, horses and rhinos. The cameras show them in a pseudo silhouette patterns as if they are about to come to life at any moment. When Herzog shows Fred Astaire dancing in silhouette it adds to the intrigue amid the fictional Hollywood side trip.
I was enlightened by the discovery of music and early artifacts. The knowledge of finding out that there was also religion many millennia ago as you watch a member of the production play the Star Spangled Banner on a flute.
In an interview with Herzog in the May/June 2011 issue of Film Comment, the point is raised about the connection beteen the past and present because the cave allows you to think of man's human soul that obviously developed to where it is today in the technological world of computers, cellphones, and the internet. How man worked the land and killed to survive gives you an idea of how humans existed and it brings into clearer focus the overall feeling of the film as not a movie but a journey inside a cave.
Herzog's passion for filmmaking is evident in his features (Aguirre The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo for example) and his other documentaries. It translates on the big screen as a testament to the myth of storytelling presented by the rock art literally for it all speaks volumes to the team of experts who are work with Herzog and their enthusiasm and excitement also become ours.
Ernest Reijseger's music is appropriately kept in the background without any jarring crescendos so you can appreciate the dignity of the period that much more. It also helps to keep you absorbed with every turn inside the cave by cameras that almost seem to be moving on their own to eagerly show everything they can.
Herzog mentions the constrictions he had while shooting and his respect toward it enhances the intriguing sensibilities the cave represents.
By the time end credits roll, the cave is no longer forgotten but a memory brought to life as timeless as the paintings of long ago. You are suitably and respectably mesmerized and entertained at the same time.
It is rated G for General which means everyone can see it.
September 9, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
SHARK NIGHT (3D),E-ONE, 2011)*
BY RICK JACKSON
Steven Spielberg needn't worry about Shark Night in 3D. When his Jaws became the summer hit of 1975 and Time Magazine declared on its cover that it was the summer of the shark.
Unfortunately fall will not be with Shark Night because it's premise is stupid and ridiculous despite some good depth shots in 3D and in the end credits. When a group of twenty somethings converge on the beach to do what the sexes do for fun, there is an inherent danger that exists as dramatic irony rather than the director's intention to make you jump out of your seat and scream like moviegoers did in 1975 and, again, in 1979 when it was re-released.
Director David R. Ellis leaves little to the imagination and as you listen for the silly dialogue from the lips of the cast, it is easy to judge how the rest of the film will inevitably turn out. It is even clearer after the first 40 minutes when there emerges three characters who are not who they seem and the reason for the sharks becomes a tedious and boring step back from the superior Jaws and Spielberg's magic touch.
Sara Paxton plays Sara,the heroine who becomes involved in something so bad, you wish the sharks attacked everyone at the beginning so the story could end sooner.
The rest of the dreamy cast features Dustin Milligan as Nick, Alyssa Diaz as Maya, Sinqua Walls as Malik and Joshua Leonard as Red.
Screenwriters Will Hayes and Jesse Srudenberg hardly bring anything new to a shark movie and, in some respects, it makes Jaws 3D(1983) look like a classic.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: violence, language may offend and gory scenes.
September 4, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Steven Spielberg needn't worry about Shark Night in 3D. When his Jaws became the summer hit of 1975 and Time Magazine declared on its cover that it was the summer of the shark.
Unfortunately fall will not be with Shark Night because it's premise is stupid and ridiculous despite some good depth shots in 3D and in the end credits. When a group of twenty somethings converge on the beach to do what the sexes do for fun, there is an inherent danger that exists as dramatic irony rather than the director's intention to make you jump out of your seat and scream like moviegoers did in 1975 and, again, in 1979 when it was re-released.
Director David R. Ellis leaves little to the imagination and as you listen for the silly dialogue from the lips of the cast, it is easy to judge how the rest of the film will inevitably turn out. It is even clearer after the first 40 minutes when there emerges three characters who are not who they seem and the reason for the sharks becomes a tedious and boring step back from the superior Jaws and Spielberg's magic touch.
Sara Paxton plays Sara,the heroine who becomes involved in something so bad, you wish the sharks attacked everyone at the beginning so the story could end sooner.
The rest of the dreamy cast features Dustin Milligan as Nick, Alyssa Diaz as Maya, Sinqua Walls as Malik and Joshua Leonard as Red.
Screenwriters Will Hayes and Jesse Srudenberg hardly bring anything new to a shark movie and, in some respects, it makes Jaws 3D(1983) look like a classic.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: violence, language may offend and gory scenes.
September 4, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK(ALLIANCE,2011)***
BY RICK JACKSON
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark is a first rate horror yarn about a haunted house and the benevolent spirits that have lived there for centuries. The mythic underpinnings contribute to the plot's effectiveness in conveying the horror aspect and it is as a film of terror that it works on more than one level.
Based on the 1973 teleplay by Nigel McKeand, the TV movie was a lot scarier. Still, this Australian remake has its moments where you are on the edge of your seat.
Director Guillermo Del Toro(Hellboy,Pan's Labyrinth) likes to play with your imagination and he succeeds this time out with special effects that may not appear to be menacing but are terifying just the same for not just the characters but you, too.
As I recall, Jim Hutton and Kim Darby were really scared in the original TV movie and it was something different from the so-called slasher movies that invaded local theatres. The simplicity of the horror made you jump and your curiosity about where the creatures came from kept you in suspense.
Unlike the telefilm, this remake from Australia (Wolf Creek) lets you see the creatures much too soon and their appearances ruin any build up that might have really put the scare back into the story.
The acting in both versions distinguishes it in the genre and moviegoers who are not afraid of the dark should be more than satisfied. The old adage of don't go in the basement takes on new meaning for it isn't bad as the adaptations of Stephen King's novels that are vastly inferior for the most part.
Bailee Madison is well cast as Sally, the intended prey of the creatures who are trying to get her to go down to the basement. It isn't quite as effective as Poltergeist (1982) which set the mark for future horror films but there still your inherent fear but if you learned anything from Poltergeist, the little girl in that film and this one isn't afraid and knows how to fight them.
The adults here as usual are the sad victims who fall for the creatures magic spell, if you want to describe it that way. The decisions to fight back in an enraged state of mind only lead to their quick exit out of the picture or their capture and the fact that director Troy Nixey doesn't give away many details leaves your imagination to fill in the gaps until you get to see them. Just what the individual goes through when he or she is captured is left open and if you watch closely you will get a better idea by film's end.
Guy Pearce plays Sally's father,Alex as a concerned parent but the screenwriters make sure he doesn't figure out what is really going on. This is left up to Alex's girlfriend,Kim (Katie Holmes in a role in she portrays with the requisite courage and I can't tell you anymore.
In an excellent supporting role is Australian actor Jack Thompson(Breaker Morant) as the gardener who knows the secret of the house.
If horror is your favourite film genre, I believe you will be surprised by Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: frightening scenes and graphic violence.
September 2,2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark is a first rate horror yarn about a haunted house and the benevolent spirits that have lived there for centuries. The mythic underpinnings contribute to the plot's effectiveness in conveying the horror aspect and it is as a film of terror that it works on more than one level.
Based on the 1973 teleplay by Nigel McKeand, the TV movie was a lot scarier. Still, this Australian remake has its moments where you are on the edge of your seat.
Director Guillermo Del Toro(Hellboy,Pan's Labyrinth) likes to play with your imagination and he succeeds this time out with special effects that may not appear to be menacing but are terifying just the same for not just the characters but you, too.
As I recall, Jim Hutton and Kim Darby were really scared in the original TV movie and it was something different from the so-called slasher movies that invaded local theatres. The simplicity of the horror made you jump and your curiosity about where the creatures came from kept you in suspense.
Unlike the telefilm, this remake from Australia (Wolf Creek) lets you see the creatures much too soon and their appearances ruin any build up that might have really put the scare back into the story.
The acting in both versions distinguishes it in the genre and moviegoers who are not afraid of the dark should be more than satisfied. The old adage of don't go in the basement takes on new meaning for it isn't bad as the adaptations of Stephen King's novels that are vastly inferior for the most part.
Bailee Madison is well cast as Sally, the intended prey of the creatures who are trying to get her to go down to the basement. It isn't quite as effective as Poltergeist (1982) which set the mark for future horror films but there still your inherent fear but if you learned anything from Poltergeist, the little girl in that film and this one isn't afraid and knows how to fight them.
The adults here as usual are the sad victims who fall for the creatures magic spell, if you want to describe it that way. The decisions to fight back in an enraged state of mind only lead to their quick exit out of the picture or their capture and the fact that director Troy Nixey doesn't give away many details leaves your imagination to fill in the gaps until you get to see them. Just what the individual goes through when he or she is captured is left open and if you watch closely you will get a better idea by film's end.
Guy Pearce plays Sally's father,Alex as a concerned parent but the screenwriters make sure he doesn't figure out what is really going on. This is left up to Alex's girlfriend,Kim (Katie Holmes in a role in she portrays with the requisite courage and I can't tell you anymore.
In an excellent supporting role is Australian actor Jack Thompson(Breaker Morant) as the gardener who knows the secret of the house.
If horror is your favourite film genre, I believe you will be surprised by Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark.
It is rated 14A, with the warnings: frightening scenes and graphic violence.
September 2,2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
THE DEBT (ALLIANCE, 2011)***
BY RICK JACKSON
From Oscar-winning director John Madden comes an explosive thriller that concentrates more on time and theme rather than plot in conveying the dramatic outcome of the three main characters who are three agents of Mossad,the Israeli Intelligence Agency. Their names are David, Rachel and Stefan and when you are introduced to them they have kidnapped a Nazi war criminal and brought him to Israel for trial.
He is Vogel, aka the Surgeon of Burkenau,who is responsible for unspeakable atrocities on the Jews.
Based on the film, Ha-Hov written by Assaf Bernstein and Ido Rosenblum, the screenplay by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Strongman first focuses on the events of 1965 before going ahead in time to 1997 when the the three are remembering what happened when a book about their past is published by Rachel's daughter. As you watch the events recounted there is a return to the urgent case of dispatching the same war criminal when they learn of his whereabouts. As the story goes back and forth you are not so much reminded of the atrocities you don't see but the sense of history time has not left alone in the memories of the survivors and their children who want to make sure no one forgets what the Nazis did to the Jewish race.
I was reminded of the 2007 Canadian film, Emotional Arithmetic about the emotional reunion of three survivors from the Defrancey detention camp 35 years after they last saw each other. Their stories rekindled the time when they had to barter their lives so they could remain free from being killed by the Nazis. In The Debt, you are told in a quiet and powerfully sensitive fashion how the lives of David, Rachel and Stefan were affected by the events in their younger days and with it you can see the faces of fear as they recount for us their desperation to bring the surgeon of Burkenau to justice that ultimately is not purged until they take matters into their own hands when they see the judicial system is taking too long. One doesn't like to use the word revenge for this is not a heavy dramatic film but an unforgettable story marked by passion and intrigue.
It is interesting to watch Madden build up the action to almost the boiling point as you wait on the edge of your seat to see what is going to happen next.Albeit some of it is predictable but not without a lot of planning as evidenced by the extremes of history that will forever remainetched in the memories of these three and it is this that obviously convinced the director to make it come alive,hopefully, for the last time if you are disturbed by the film's mature and disturbing subject.
The Debt is not about presenting the actors with a chance to impress with their acting abilities for no one steals the film and for this reason it is worth seeing.
It is rated 14A,with the warnings: coarse language and graphic violence.
September 1, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
From Oscar-winning director John Madden comes an explosive thriller that concentrates more on time and theme rather than plot in conveying the dramatic outcome of the three main characters who are three agents of Mossad,the Israeli Intelligence Agency. Their names are David, Rachel and Stefan and when you are introduced to them they have kidnapped a Nazi war criminal and brought him to Israel for trial.
He is Vogel, aka the Surgeon of Burkenau,who is responsible for unspeakable atrocities on the Jews.
Based on the film, Ha-Hov written by Assaf Bernstein and Ido Rosenblum, the screenplay by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Strongman first focuses on the events of 1965 before going ahead in time to 1997 when the the three are remembering what happened when a book about their past is published by Rachel's daughter. As you watch the events recounted there is a return to the urgent case of dispatching the same war criminal when they learn of his whereabouts. As the story goes back and forth you are not so much reminded of the atrocities you don't see but the sense of history time has not left alone in the memories of the survivors and their children who want to make sure no one forgets what the Nazis did to the Jewish race.
I was reminded of the 2007 Canadian film, Emotional Arithmetic about the emotional reunion of three survivors from the Defrancey detention camp 35 years after they last saw each other. Their stories rekindled the time when they had to barter their lives so they could remain free from being killed by the Nazis. In The Debt, you are told in a quiet and powerfully sensitive fashion how the lives of David, Rachel and Stefan were affected by the events in their younger days and with it you can see the faces of fear as they recount for us their desperation to bring the surgeon of Burkenau to justice that ultimately is not purged until they take matters into their own hands when they see the judicial system is taking too long. One doesn't like to use the word revenge for this is not a heavy dramatic film but an unforgettable story marked by passion and intrigue.
It is interesting to watch Madden build up the action to almost the boiling point as you wait on the edge of your seat to see what is going to happen next.Albeit some of it is predictable but not without a lot of planning as evidenced by the extremes of history that will forever remainetched in the memories of these three and it is this that obviously convinced the director to make it come alive,hopefully, for the last time if you are disturbed by the film's mature and disturbing subject.
The Debt is not about presenting the actors with a chance to impress with their acting abilities for no one steals the film and for this reason it is worth seeing.
It is rated 14A,with the warnings: coarse language and graphic violence.
September 1, 2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
BIUTIFUL(MAPLE,2010)****
BY RICK JACKSON
Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu brings to the screen an arresting performance by Javier Bardem as a man whose moral principles are questioned by his duty to his family and his responsibiliy to his job. Framed by the same close-ups that have been a trademark in his career,he uncomfortably places his protagonists in a vacuum of emotions and regret that play out in the story's simplistic plot threads while you wait to see where it is all going.
The visual impact of Bardem as Uxbal is a testament to the kind of film Inarritu likes to do: hard-hitting dramas that could easily pass as documentaries. He appreciates the moral dilemma of his hero archetype which is not always clear cut but interesting enough to follow by the sheer scope of the visual image that often speaks louder than they are supposed.
Watch how Bardem's facial expressions occupy him constantly from the first moment he is introduced. He is a caring father to his three sons and with each succeeding sequence you see him tormented by emotions that are,albeit,familiar,but govern his silent behaviour that appear as visible signs of living and working under difficult circumstances,including his dealings with a criminal gang and the unfortunate results of his guilty conscience that,in turn,will not let him rest when he learns of the tragedy from the faulty heaters. It almost destroys his faith in human nature and it is from this experience you gain a more sympathetic point of view toward the serious undercurrent of the film's dramatic underpinnings.
Bardem's character becomes an unlikely saviour in disguise whose motives are as genuine as any other major character in the director's body of work. If you have followed his career you will immediately recognize a common thread of sensibility that comes from the gut,whether he is a hard-bitten killer in No Country For Old Men(2007)or more human person he portrays in The Sea Inside,there is the central issue of morality that the actor conveys by his controlled sense of complexity and understanding in a variety of roles where he is is unconsciously getting closer to reality and away from the fictional approach other inexperienced actors might take.
In Biutiful,he plays Uxbal as a man caught in the amoral contradictions of the present that are not meant to be articulated because the actor's latest character is not as easily defined. All things point in retrospect to a stronger characterization,which he has successfully done in all his films including this one.
Inarritu likes to see his main characters squirm if you remember Sean Penn in 21 Grams(2003) and Brad Pitt in Babel(2006). There is a consistency in the manner he likes to maintain the proper dramatic pace of his films.
In their screenplay,Inarritu,Armando Bo and Nicolas Giacobone,from an original story by Inarritu,Biutiful doesn't conform to convention and there is through Bardem's role a dramatic tour de force. Here is a powerful character study about human behaviour in a film where the story may be superficial but it is all done with complete regard to its mature subject matter.
It is rated 14A,with the warnings: coarse language and disturbing content.
March 13,2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu brings to the screen an arresting performance by Javier Bardem as a man whose moral principles are questioned by his duty to his family and his responsibiliy to his job. Framed by the same close-ups that have been a trademark in his career,he uncomfortably places his protagonists in a vacuum of emotions and regret that play out in the story's simplistic plot threads while you wait to see where it is all going.
The visual impact of Bardem as Uxbal is a testament to the kind of film Inarritu likes to do: hard-hitting dramas that could easily pass as documentaries. He appreciates the moral dilemma of his hero archetype which is not always clear cut but interesting enough to follow by the sheer scope of the visual image that often speaks louder than they are supposed.
Watch how Bardem's facial expressions occupy him constantly from the first moment he is introduced. He is a caring father to his three sons and with each succeeding sequence you see him tormented by emotions that are,albeit,familiar,but govern his silent behaviour that appear as visible signs of living and working under difficult circumstances,including his dealings with a criminal gang and the unfortunate results of his guilty conscience that,in turn,will not let him rest when he learns of the tragedy from the faulty heaters. It almost destroys his faith in human nature and it is from this experience you gain a more sympathetic point of view toward the serious undercurrent of the film's dramatic underpinnings.
Bardem's character becomes an unlikely saviour in disguise whose motives are as genuine as any other major character in the director's body of work. If you have followed his career you will immediately recognize a common thread of sensibility that comes from the gut,whether he is a hard-bitten killer in No Country For Old Men(2007)or more human person he portrays in The Sea Inside,there is the central issue of morality that the actor conveys by his controlled sense of complexity and understanding in a variety of roles where he is is unconsciously getting closer to reality and away from the fictional approach other inexperienced actors might take.
In Biutiful,he plays Uxbal as a man caught in the amoral contradictions of the present that are not meant to be articulated because the actor's latest character is not as easily defined. All things point in retrospect to a stronger characterization,which he has successfully done in all his films including this one.
Inarritu likes to see his main characters squirm if you remember Sean Penn in 21 Grams(2003) and Brad Pitt in Babel(2006). There is a consistency in the manner he likes to maintain the proper dramatic pace of his films.
In their screenplay,Inarritu,Armando Bo and Nicolas Giacobone,from an original story by Inarritu,Biutiful doesn't conform to convention and there is through Bardem's role a dramatic tour de force. Here is a powerful character study about human behaviour in a film where the story may be superficial but it is all done with complete regard to its mature subject matter.
It is rated 14A,with the warnings: coarse language and disturbing content.
March 13,2011
Copyright Rick Jackson 2011
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